So what on earth is a Tweenie then?

Are any small children reading this? Hey kids! Wow, look at that over there! (OK, I'll be really, really quick - a Tweenie is somebody dressed up in a big foam rubber suit, with a big bulbous head, Shhh!)

Ahem. Anyway, a show aimed at The Wiggles-type age group, The Tweenies is a remarkably colourful BBC production that has been running now for around four years. Sort of like a technicolour Play School, rather than having 'real' people presenting, we get a number of characters. There's Bella, with a blonde bob and red dress she is the eldest, and she likes milk, water, tomato soup, brown bread, strawberries and ice cream - though not all together. Next up is Milo, he has spiky cropped hair and is quite fond of apple juice, samosas, sausages, baked beans and apples. Being a boy he also loves his footy. Cutie-pie redhead with dreads Fizz is next, she digs sparkly things (what girl doesn’t?) orange juice, carrots, pasta, pineapple and candy floss, oh and bread with the crusts cut off. The last of the Tweenies is Jake. The littlest, he sports a funky blonde Mohawk, and is into chocky milk, bananas, carrots, rice and yoghurt. They're all looked after by storyteller Judy, Max and his dog Doodles. I must apologise that I couldn’t find out their star signs - I guess my research skills just aren’t up to scratch enough to realise my dreams of running a dating agency.

Presented here are two episodes of the show dating back to 1999. Both run for around an hour and have plenty to keep young kiddies amused. Rather than peering through different shaped windows, The Tweenies consult a clock ("Tweenie clock, where will it stop?") to decide what they are going to get up to. There's sing-alongs, dancing, things to make and do (including every parents nightmare - something involving paint!), dress-ups, storytelling, games and quite a bit more. Whilst sadly I haven't been blessed with any little ones that I could have road tested this with, it does follow a similar tried and true formula to such successes as Bananas in Pyjamas and The Wiggles and is quite fast paced. I daresay it would prove a handy distraction for any young child, and a well-deserved sanity break for parents - assuming they could escape the room...

Wouldn't you know it? This is a simply marvellous, essentially flawless transfer. The 16x9 enhanced, 1.78:1 transfer's massive array of day-glo colours are all rendered absolutely beautifully. Forget the safety scissors, this is sharper than dressmaking ones and exhibits no obvious visual nasties whatsoever.

The Dolby Stereo audio is completely serviceable for such a title. Dialogue is quite clear, although the British accents may prove a trifle confuddling for some littlies at times. With no surround encoding, naturally extra speakers aren’t used, unless your gear is clever and splits it all up in which case there is only minimal redirection - I'm fairly certain this would not bother the target audience though, unless they have incredibly pushy nerd parents. Considering the nature of the characters, need I mention audio synch? No, I didn’t think so…

There aren't any extras at all, however the gorgeous animated menus, featuring the four Tweenies boogieing to more of the generic synthesised music as featured in the episodes, do lead to submenus where you can select any scene, go for a random stab in the dark or simply play the entire episode. Whilst Party Games, Laughs and Giggles has an option labelled 'play all', at first glance Animal Friends doesn't, however all you need do is select the option of the same name and you'll get the whole shebang - and hopefully an hour's peace. There are also subtitles, so you can sing along with such classics as Old MacDonald Had a Farm if the mood takes you.

The kids are happy, the parents are happy - and so they all lived happily ever after!